Final touches for Royal Princess

MONFALCONE, Italy — It was cold — and I mean freezing cold — here as I was taking a first-hand look at the progress of the new Royal Princess.

Working around the clock at the Fincantieri Shipyards in Monfalcone, about 1,000 workers were busy putting the final pieces together for Princess Cruises’ new 3,600-passenger prototype and the queen of the fleet. In the coming weeks, the final glamour touches will be added and the Royal Princess will be ready to sail into Southampton in June for her inauguration.

Previous Princess cruisers and newbies alike are not going to be disappointed.

Royal deluxe balcony cabin

The line has enhanced many features its passengers have come to love and added a lot of new “wow” ones.

There are new-look staterooms from inside to balcony to suites — and by the way this ship is all about balconies, with over 80 per cent of the ship facing the scenery.

For those of you travelling in a suite, you will now have your own concierge lounge.

Over on the food side, buffets are the first to receive thumbs-up-or-down and first indication is that for the Horizon Court, it should be thumbs up. Opening up the space are 1,500 seats, including 150 that face the main pool deck with more unique foodie stations. More room is

Horizon buffet on the Royal Princess

created as well by taking out all drink dispensers. From now on, it’s service at your table throughout the day.

Adjacent to Horizon is the Bistro Lounge and, for those of you who like your sweets, the pastry kitchen is now the size of an apartment at 1,200 square feet. So bring on the waffles to start the day and the desert choices to end it, after dinner. The main dining area consists of three 600-seat sections.

If you want something unique, Princess has added a Chef’s Table Lumiere. It’s a 12-seat, circular, private dining table in the middle of one of the dining rooms and around it is a fibre-optic, illuminated

Chef’s Table, inside illuminated curtains

curtain. Need something a little less dramatic? There are more tables in the main dining rooms. The “dine anytime” area has more in the way of tables-for-four and tables-for-two, adding intimacy to your dining.

Princess has paired several favourites, such as the Crown Grill and Wheelhouse Bar (where you will also find your pub lunch) as well as Sabatini’s and the Vines wine bar.

Following three sold-out introductory cruises in June, the Royal Princess will sail the first of nine Grand Mediterranean trips between Barcelona and Venice, with calls at Toulon (for Provence), Livorno (for Florence and Pisa), Civitavecchia (for Rome), Naples (for Capri and Pompeii), Mykonos, Istanbul, Kusadasi (for Ephesus), Athens and finally an overnight stay in the beautiful Italian city of Venice.

Lots more on the Royal Princess is coming tomorrow, including what has been done to the centrepiece of the ship, the Piazza (or atrium). It is going to be spectacular.